 Free COVID-19 tests at Udall Park and Recreation Center
PIMA COUNTY, August 6, 2020 – The Pima County Health Department, City of Tucson, and Paradigm Laboratories will begin free COVID-19 tests Friday, August 7 at the Udall Park and Recreation Center, 7200 E. Tanque Verde Road.
To register for a test, go to www.pima.gov/covid19testing and click on the Schedule My Test link for Udall, or call 800-369-3584 to schedule an appointment. No walk-in tests will be conducted, people must have an appointment. The Testing Center will be open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m, Tuesday through Sunday. Testing will continue at the Center until it is no longer needed to control the pandemic.
"Mayor and Council are committed to ensuring our community has access to testing throughout the city,” said Mayor Regina Romero. “This is another great partnership with Pima County focused on doing what is in the best interest of Tucsonans.”
This is the third free COVID-19 testing center opened by the county in the past month, the second operated by Paradigm. Paradigm is providing test results within 72 hours or less. A doctor’s order is not needed to get the test.
“We are grateful to the City of Tucson for their continued support for community wide, COVID-19 testing,” said Pima County Board of Supervisors Chairman Ramón Valadez. “The Udall Center is a perfect location to reach those residents living and working on the east side of town. We will continue to work with all of our community partners to reduce and control the spread of this virus.”
The additional location coincides with the Health Department’s continued expansion of contact tracing efforts. Like at the Kino Testing Center, everyone tested must provide contact information which, will be given to the County’s contact tracing team when there are positive results.Through a contractor, the Department has increased the number of contract tracers to 40, with roughly 90 more in training to start making calls by August 31.
“Improving the time between testing and getting results is the only way to slow the spread of COVID-19,” said Pima County Health Director Dr. Theresa Cullen. “We’ve seen aggressive testing, case investigation, and contact tracing work in other places and we have been working day and night to increase our abilities to do all this here.”
Paradigm said it can conduct up to 1,000 tests a day. The scheduling website and the appointment hotline provide information about parking and other safety information for arriving at the testing center. Patients must arrive at their appointment time. Patients who arrive early must wait in their car. Late arrivals must reschedule.
The Udall Testing Center is funded by Tucson’s and the County’s federal CARES Act grants.
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